awful proofs of his justice; and in the order of sublunary things, our very comforts are inseparably linked with calamities.

I. Let us consider that state of adversity or affliction to which even the people of God are subject.

We are not indeed to regard the condition of good men as always mournful, or as at any time replete with those measures of gall and bitterness which enter into the lot of the impious and ungodly. A good man takes religion for his guide, his counsellor, and his portion; earnestly seeking an interest in the blood of Christ, the pardoning love of Christ, and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. He prays fervently, that he may be enabled to enter into the spirit, and taste the enjoyments of the Gospel; and after he has known what it is to have communion with heaven, and feel the delights which spring from devotion, he would not exchange them for all the pleasures of the world. "God," says the pious Fenelon, "is the Father of mercies, comfort. (2 Cor. i. 3.) rates these two. His drawn, but his mercies still continue. He takes away what is sweet and sensible in grace, because you want to be humbled, and punished,

and the God of all He sometimes sepaconsolations are with

for having sought consolation elsewhere. Such chastisement is still a new depth of mercy." The smoothest course of the Christian has usually its obstacles, and the fairest prospect its passing clouds and shades; but there are seasons of sorrow which deserve to be particularly marked.

Affliction may spring,

1. From bodily infirmity.

He

The human frame, however majestic in appearance, and wonderful in structure, is built of weak and frail materials. Touched by the hand of God, it withers and decays, or on a sudden shakes under the most violent paroxysms of agony, We behold a man who lately moved with alacrity in the social circle, and with vigour in the pursuits of business, and the walks of benevolence, now languishing and sinking under the visitation of sickness. is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain. Disease drinks up the animal spirits, clogs all the springs of life, and reduces the most robust frame to debility and helplessness. When thou, Lord, dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth!" Good men have no exemption from these strokes of corporeal chastisement. Their blood is susceptible of fever, their lungs of asthma, their limbs of palsy, as well as others;

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they weep and sigh and faint, like the rest of the species, beneath the burden of those malaIdies which are the common lot of fallen humanity. Job had "his wearisome nights and months of vanity," which sometimes wrung from him complaints uttered in the anguish of his spirit, and the bitterness of his soul. But it may be said, Is not the bright hope of that blooming health and immortal life, which the Gospel gives to the believer, sufficient to annihilate the sufferings of the body? Ah! no: such a hope will alleviate, but not absorb grief; will take out the sting of guilt, but not take off the edge of sensibility to pain. "It is," says Dr. Owen, "the work of heaven itself, and not of the assurances of it, to wipe away all tears from our eyes."

2. Affliction springs from outward losses, difficulties, and trials.

Sometimes our sympathy lays us open to the keenest suffering. Beloved relatives, and endeared friends, are overwhelmed with an influx of grief, and we share their sorrow; or we are called to close their eyes in death, and weep over their graves. The aged pilgrim has lost many of his earliest and best companions, and cries," Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness;" and the disconsolate parent, bending over the cold remains of a darling child, exclaims,

with all the tenderness and emotion which nature in agony can feel, "O Absalom! my son! my son!"

Among the various causes of affliction, poverty is one. The man who is in straitened and pressing circumstances, whose family is large, and his income scanty; whose wants are numerous and urgent, and his supplies few and precarious; finds it no easy task to keep the mind calm and serene. Inevitable difficulties, losses, and disappointments in business, form no small part of the burden of affliction under which thousands groan. The present is a time of unusual embarrassment; not only the indolent and extravagant, but even men of diligence and discretion look around, and often seem to see every door shut, and every way of relief cut off; trade flows in new channels, a fatal blight comes upon their hopes, and the gulph of ruin appears to open before them.

Affliction, of a very trying kind, rises from the reproaches and calumnies of envious and perverse men. Let no one wonder that he should have spiteful enemies, who injure him without a cause. In a world so full of strife and contention, of pride and passion, of ill-will and malice, it is almost impossible to escape untouched by the hand of violence, or untainted by the breath of scandal. "But call to remembrance the former days, in which after ye

were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used." (Heb. x. 32, 33.) That we may not be afraid of what is, let us see God's hand in all events; and that we may not be afraid of what shall be, let us see all events in God's hand. "The frowns of the world,” says M. Henry, "would not disquiet us so

much, if we did

not foolishly flatter ourselves

with the hope of its smiles."

3. Affliction arises sometimes from inward darkness and spiritual desertion.

External sufferings are not to be compared with the troubles of the heart. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" When the joys and comforts of religion are lost; when the soul itself is cast down, and shorn of its strength; in vain do the charms of nature bloom to the eye, or the soft accents of friendship and kindness fall upon the ear! The most eminent Christians have known those seasons of darkness, of deep distress, and mental conflict, which cannot be described so as to be made intelligible to those who have lived estranged from God, and have never kindled with desire for the enjoyment of his favour, or shrunk with horror at the apprehension of his displeasure.